Most people can remember the British Airtours disaster at Manchester Airport in 1985 where sadly 55 passengers died but not many know about the one in Wythenshawe.
The BAE (British Eueopean Airways) flight 411 was on route from Amsterdam to Manchester on 14 March 1957, it seemed all was going well until only a mile from the Manchester Airport runway the aircraft suddenly turned and banked to the right crashing into some houses on the ground.
All passengers and flight crew died in the crash including 2 on the ground which was believed to be a mother and her daughter.
An airport fireman who lived in the area where the plane crashed got a petition together a year before to get changes due to low flying aircraft sadly his wife and his young son died in the crash.
Firefighters and police were on the scene ultra fast and fire crews put out the blaze and an investigation was underway, it was later found that ‘Metal fatigue’ probably caused the crash, a bolt that secured a flap unit detached and the pilot lost control.
Because of the investigation several changes were made to this type of aircraft and others and shows how just a single bolt detachment can bring down an aircraft, the flaps at the back control the aircraft left and right up and down any loss of these critical functions and the aircraft is in trouble.
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